Brodie Bruce is a fictional character played by Jason Lee in the Kevin Smith films Mallrats and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. He is depicted as an unemployed slacker, living with his parents and lacking the motivation and maturity appropriate to his age.
Smith has said Walt Flanagan was the inspiration for the character. "Brodie" is named after the main character in Jaws (a favorite film of Smith's which the director frequently references in his work), while his surname "Bruce" was the nickname given to the animatronic shark in Jaws.
In the film, Brodie is first seen asleep in a comically small twin bed next to his girlfriend Rene. She knocks on his skull to wake him, at which time he commences to finish a video game he presumably suspended the night before only in order to sleep. As the scene unfolds, it becomes clear that Rene is fed up with Brodie's thoroughly uninspired antics and ensuing lack of sex drive, which prompts him to utter, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned for Sega." They argue, and she exits through his basement bedroom's window to avoid being seen by his overbearing mother. On her way out, she tosses a letter at Brodie indicating that their relationship is over.
Brodie as sage[]
Brodie spouts advice and adages throughout the film, frequently to sidekick T.S. Quint, played by Jeremy London. His roles as a sage range from the simple, "Waste not, want not." uttered when sipping cola from a paper cup, to the complex attempts at helping T.S. put his floundering relationship back together by placing him on a dating game show with his erstwhile girlfriend, Brandi. Throughout the film, Brodie tries to help his friend and inadvertently helps himself in the same way.
Brodie as anti-hero[]
Brodie is a classic anti-hero in the sense that his less sympathetic traits are just as appealing as his redeeming ones. Some examples are:
- Use of the miscreant duo Jay and Silent Bob to stop Brandi from appearing on the game show.
- Tampering with the male game show contestants, ultimately putting himself and T.S. on the show.
- Use of the infamous "stink palm" on Brandi's megalomaniacal father in order to incapacitate him.
- Having sex with Rene in a mall elevator to prove his worthiness.
Brodie after Mallrats[]
At the conclusion of Mallrats, it is revealed that Brodie took over hosting duties for The Tonight Show, having hired Rene as his band leader.
- One of the newspaper subheadlines in the montage shown during the opening credits of Chasing Amy reads "Brodie Bruce walks off Tonight Show."
- Brodie makes an appearance in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. He now owns his own comic book store in Red Bank, New Jersey, "Brodie's Secret Stash," an obvious homage to Smith's own Red Bank outlet Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash. Visible behind the counter is a newspaper mentioning his former job on The Tonight Show, with a headline reading "Brodie Bolts". He is the first character to inform Jay and Silent Bob that there is a film version of Bluntman and Chronic scheduled for release.
Trivia[]
- Brodie's name is referenced in the Disney/Pixar film The Incredibles; when Jason Lee's character, Buddy Pine (who will eventually become the evil Syndrome), is introduced, Mr. Incredible (Pine's idol at the time) struggles to remember Buddy's name, at first referring to him as Brodie.
- Brodie and Randal Graves (of Smith's earlier film Clerks) are cousins, as they both go into lengthy monologues about the bizarre escapades of their mutual cousin, Walter. They also mention a grandmother who may be a late in life lesbian and a racist.